My love/hate relationship with black.

neoprufrok

New member
So.. I spent another weekend in the garage with my halogen lights, PC, and a few polishes. My black A4 took a beating from the dealership and body shop. Long story short, there was a lot of swirls/scratches.



So this is what I did:



After testing out various things on the hood, I went-



p21s wash

pinnacle clay

Meguair's DACP with yellow pad

3M FI3MG with white pad

Klassse AIO x 2 with white pad

Klasse SG x 1 so far.



My results:

IMG_2383.jpg


IMG_2375.jpg


IMG_2373.jpg




My observations:



1) This was my first time useing Meguiar's DACP. I found it to be more aggressive than 3m FI3MG leaving some very fine swirling afterwards. I iniitally tried 3m SMR after DACP but it didn't take out the swirling. So I switched to 3m FI3MG which did the job with the white pad.



2) Uisng the PCWhtie pad with Klasse AIO was much better than by hand. It seemed to remove the slight haze left behind by the 3M FI3 better than by hand.



3) In myopinion, you can't ever return a car's paint back to factory fresh, zero miles condition. After all my work, there is still some very minor scratches and swirls that will show up with halogens or very bright, direct sunlight. I figured I could spend hours on end chasing those swirls, but the yield would be less with each attempt.



4) Black cars are the greatest test of your detailing prowess. Once I did this for my Black audi, I detailed my wife's silver mercedes in a similar fashion and It looked stunning!
 
I have the same car , but an 03, what happened to it that needed to go to the dealer/body shop? Sounds like they caused all the swirls. Any way, glad to see the car is looking good again.
 
Well.. long story short, they installed the clearbra 2months after I bought the car because they couldn't install it at the time of delivery. I saw that even though I washed the car right before I brought it to them, they washed it with their own machine non-touchfree wash. In addition, the person who put on teh clearbra must have used crappy towels. Lots of swirls near the clearbra.. which is still a problem I need to take care of.



The bodyshop was to repair a scractch in teh door left there by the dealer. They did it, but in the process buffed up the door some. I've had a horrible time getting bodyshops to take care of swirls, so I just didn't even bother talking to them to fix it.



It is looking a lot better though.



Also.. the WOO method works great. No hazing and no residual Klasse.
 
neoprufrok- Nice job; that Audi clear takes a lot of work :xyxthumbs BTW, I think you're smart to take a "reasonable" view of black car ownership.



Oh, FI-III MG or PI-III MG (05937)?
 
nice. I might follow your method. I have to do my baby soon



what is 3M FI3MG



I hope the image is showing up correctly.



cab.jpg
 
Accumulator said:
neoprufrok- Nice job; that Audi clear takes a lot of work :xyxthumbs BTW, I think you're smart to take a "reasonable" view of black car ownership.



Oh, FI-III MG or PI-III MG (05937)?



Thanks!



Yeah.. it took a LOT of work.



I'm sorry I meant to say PI3MG!
 
caster said:
nice. I might follow your method. I have to do my baby soon



what is 3M FI3MG



I hope the image is showing up correctly.



cab.jpg



Man.. I love those cabs. Trying to convince the wife to dump the MBZ coupe and get a cab.. but she wont' bite!
 
neoprufrok- OK :cool: on the PI-III. I wasn't being [whatever], I just wondered if there was something new out there that I wasn't aware of.



Caster- That is an especially nice looking ride! I dunno if I ever really appreciated the S4 cab until right now. That *IS* an S4 cab, right?
 
04Runner said:
NEO - What are you putting on your tires? The car looks awesome.



Thanks! I use Zaino actually. I love the stuff. I used 303 protectant up to a certain point, but I found it loss its silky shine within 2-3 days with any amount of rain. Zaino stays on for a week ro so, which is good enough for me. It also looks natural, not greasy.
 
Accumulator said:
neoprufrok- OK :cool: on the PI-III. I wasn't being [whatever], I just wondered if there was something new out there that I wasn't aware of.



Caster- That is an especially nice looking ride! I dunno if I ever really appreciated the S4 cab until right now. That *IS* an S4 cab, right?



s4 cab doesnt come out till aprilish.. This is the 1.8T cab
 
I should mention one other thing. My PC 7424 is having some trouble actually rotating with the 7.5" pad. Seems easier with the 6" pads. Anyone else have this issue?
 
i never got my question answered. what is 3M FI3MG ? Maybe machine glaze? I got IHG,SMR, p21s DACP . I just want to pick up some Klasse Twins and hopefully I should be able to achieve what neo did!
 
Caster- Sorry, the FI-III was a typo. We meant 3M PI-III Machine Glaze. It's a mild polish with no fillers that removes minor marring. It works VERY well, better than your SMR. It's milder than the DACP and is a good product to have around. Use it after the DACP and before the AIO (if the MG leaves a residue, the AIO will remove it). The PI-III MG is pn 05937. I don't have a link handy (new computer), but it's available wherever you get 3M stuff.
 
Accumulator said:
Caster- Sorry, the FI-III was a typo. We meant 3M PI-III Machine Glaze. It's a mild polish with no fillers that removes minor marring. It works VERY well, better than your SMR. It's milder than the DACP and is a good product to have around. Use it after the DACP and before the AIO (if the MG leaves a residue, the AIO will remove it). The PI-III MG is pn 05937. I don't have a link handy (new computer), but it's available wherever you get 3M stuff.



Yeah... sorry caster.. i menat to say that in reply to your post, but forgot.



It's funny you say that about the 3M PI3MG Accumulator, I was very surprised how well it worked as a stepdown polish from the DACP with the finishing pad. The DACP left me with some micromarring that I was unhappy with, but the PI3MG took care of that.
 
Yeah, the PI-III MG is a great product (heh heh, almost as good as 1Z PP ;) which is my new fave). The only problem I've ever had with the MG was/is a hard to remove residue that only happens sporadically. It seems to happen more often when I use the MG over not-quite-gone synthetics, especially SG. The residue can be QUITE tenacious (I don't like to "scrub", even with a MF and #34), but AIO takes it right off.
 
The PI III MG still left some marring behind on my other car but it also 15 year old white paint, can't wait to use the 1z polishes
 
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